There was an interesting study of over 12,000 people published in the New England Journal of Medicine recently (Christakis and Fowler, 2008) looking at the way that stopping smoking seems to help those around us stop smoking as well.  So if I stop, the chances of my spouse smoking decrease by 67%, of a friend smoking decrease by 36%, of a co-worker (in a small firm) by 34%, and of a sibling...

I'm impressed by this description of personal experience with depression on Julian Sheather's blog. Julian is deputy head of ethics at the British Medical Association. The blog entry raises thoughtful issues about autonomy, antidepressants and the...